US doctor gets 25 years for conspiring to help Al-Qaeda

NEW YORK: A medical doctor from Florida was sentenced to 25 years in jail on Wednesday for conspiring to provide Al-Qaeda with medical assistance and martial arts training, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York said.

Rafiq Sabir, 53, was convicted in May of 'conspiring to provide material support or resources to the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, after pledging an oath of loyalty to Al-Qaeda and (its leader) Osama Bin Laden," Michael Garcia said in a statement.

An undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent secretly recorded the May 2005 oath-taking ceremony and other contacts and conversations between Sabir and other conspirators between 2003 and 2005.

"Sabir conspired with his good friend, Tarik Shah, to provide martial arts training and medical assistance to Al-Qaeda, through a man whom they believed to be a recruiter for the terrorist organization," who was in fact an FBI agent, Garcia said.

Shah also told the undercover agent of plans he and Sabir had in 1998 to attend terrorist training camps in then Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

A Florida resident, Sabir was arrested in May 2005.

Shah and two other defendants in the case, Mahmud Faruq Brent and Abdulrahman Farhane, were given prison sentences ranging 13-15 years, following their guilty pleas, the US Attorney said.